


Love Triangle

by BeccaAnne814



Series: Steve Rogers x Reader Series [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Major Endgame Spoilers, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21581860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaAnne814/pseuds/BeccaAnne814
Summary: Coming out of the ice, Steve is confronted by the reality that the love of his life is still alive.  Peggy has already lived her whole life, while Steve is pretty much picking up where he left off.  Is he ready to let go of the one woman who saw the man behind the shield and move on with another who’s willing to stand by his side and battle the forces of evil?
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers x Reader
Series: Steve Rogers x Reader Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/774303
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49





	Love Triangle

**Steve Rogers x Reader**

**Summary** – Coming out of the ice, Steve is confronted by the reality that the love of his life is still alive. Peggy has already lived her whole life, while Steve is pretty much picking up where he left off. Is he ready to let go of the one woman who saw the man behind the shield and move on with another who’s willing to stand by his side and battle the forces of evil?

**Warnings** – Major Endgame spoilers at the end, Angst. . .probably a curse word or two

**Word Count** – 5K

**Notes:** At the End.

_ ** [](https://beccaanne814.tumblr.com/post/174989754188/masterlist) _ ** [Masterlist](https://beccaanne814.tumblr.com/post/174989754188/masterlist) ** _ ** _

** _Washington D.C. 2014_ **

"Come here often?" YN asked with a flirty smile as she sat her tray of food down across from Steve.

[[MORE]]

He looked up from the bowl of soup he'd been idly stirring as a smile spread across his face. "As a matter of fact, I do."

YN looked around at the room full of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. "Still haven't found anyone brave enough to come over and sit with you?"

Steve let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders.

"It might not hurt to try being a little bit nicer," YN teased as she tore her breadstick in half and pointed one end at him. "You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar."

He gave her a chiding look. "We both know that's not the case."

Giving up, she leaned forward. "They're just intimidated. Once they get to know you like I do, they'll start to come around."

"Do you know me, though. Really?"

Steve's words hurt, but she did her best not to let it show. Since she'd been assigned to work with him and Agent Romanoff a few months ago, she'd done her best not to act like a starstruck teenager around the super soldier. She'd been just as intimidated as the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the Triskelion when she'd first met him, but she'd thought they'd come a long way since then. 

She nodded toward the cafeteria full of agents. "They still see you as the legendary hero miraculously come back to life."

"And what do you see?" Steve asked as he leaned back in his chair.

A sad smile played at the corners of her mouth. "I see a man who's been forced to put on a charade for far too long. They may not realize it, but you're not some immortal god."

Steve narrowed his eyes and studied her. "Maybe you do know me."

"I wouldn't mind getting to know you a little bit better," she said as her heart began hammering in her chest. This was the closest she'd come to telling him how she felt about him, and the fear of rejection had her stomach doing somersaults.

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but Natasha chose that moment to approach their table.

"Sorry to interrupt," Nat said with a thin smile. "This just came for you."

Steve took the slip of paper from her and quickly read it. "You'll have to excuse me."

Nat watched Steve rush off before taking the seat he'd just vacated. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

YN gave the redhead an icy glare. "As a matter of fact. . ."

"She's having a good day, today," Nat said, interrupting. "That was the message."

YN's heart fell. "And of course he had to go."

"You know how much she means to him."

YN nodded. "I get it—I really do. There's not a woman alive that could ever compare to her."

Steve knew the route by heart at this point—he'd driven it so many times since he'd come out of the ice, but it never got any easier. He never really knew what to expect when he went to visit her. Some days he came away even more broken-hearted than he had before he'd arrived, and other days seemed like a gift from heaven. 

He'd argued with himself time and time again about continuing to visit. Was it really doing either of them any good to keep dredging up the past? In the end, he knew that as long as she was still with him, he'd continue to put himself through the torture if it meant he got to spend another few moments with her.

She was sitting in a chair overlooking the gardens when he arrived. He always gave it a few moments so he could judge which woman he was going to be speaking with that day. Her eyes always gave it away. Some days they were tear-filled, some days they were clouded with confusion, and other days—like today—they were full of happiness.

"Steve," she said as she held out a hand. "Come sit with me."

Steve sat in the chair opposite hers and took her hand in his. "Hello, Peggy. How ya feeling today?"

"Old," she said with a raspy laugh.

"Nonsense. You're still as beautiful as the day I met you."

Peggy made a derisive sound and playfully swatted his shoulder. 

They spent the next few minutes engaging in the kind of small talk that she loathed, but tolerated simply because it was him. She humored him and told him about her day—what she'd had for breakfast, how she'd spent her morning, what she planned to do for the rest of the afternoon—but she knew there was something on his mind that he wasn't telling her.

It took her a few more minutes to figure it out, and it wasn't until she switched the subject to his work at S.H.I.E.L.D. that it all started to make sense. All of a sudden, he wouldn't quite meet her eye and he'd started placate her with evasive answers.

She reached out, grabbed his hand, and waited until his eyes finally met hers. "What's her name?"

Guilt washed over him. "What are you talking about?"

She shook her head and made a tsking sound. "Steven Grant Rogers. Don't you dare try to lie to me—I know you too well for you to be able to get away with it. Now tell me what her name is."

He had no idea how she did it, but she'd been always one step ahead of him since the beginning. With a sigh of resignation, he gave in to her request. 

"YN."

Peggy nodded, glad that she'd been right. "Is she pretty?"

Steve cocked his head and gave her a hard look. "No one will ever be as lovely as you in my eyes."

"So, she's pretty," Peggy deduced with a sly smile. 

"Peggy."

She waved away his censorious tone. "I'm ninety-three Steve."

"I know."

Peggy studied his face for a few moments before motioning to the nightstand by her bed filled with pictures. "Bring me the one in the gold frame."

Steve rose and retrieved the photograph she'd requested. Sitting back down, he handed it to her.

She ran a finger down the glass as she gazed longingly at the photo. Reaching out, she handed it to him. "Tell me what you see."

He didn't need to look at the picture to know what scene it showed. "It's your wedding day."

"Yes," she said nodding her head. "Are you angry with me that I moved on with my life and found someone to love—someone that loved me in return?"

"Of course not," he assured her. "I was dead—or at least I wasn't coming back anytime soon. I'm glad you found Daniel and that you had a good life, had a family."

"I'll always be angry at Fate for denying us the chance to be happy together, but I'm not sorry that I got married and had a family. I knew you wouldn't want me to spend the rest of my life mourning you." She paused for a moment as she reached out to run her fingers down his face. "I don't want that for you either, Steve."

"It was different for you, though," he argued. "You thought I was dead, but you're still with me."

She let out a frustrated sigh. "Does she love you?"

"Quit trying to change the subject."

"You're the one trying to change the subject," she chided. "Now answer my question. Does she love you?"

He turned and looked out the window for a moment. "She wants to—I think—but I'm not really sure she's thought it through. A life with me will never be normal. . ."

"You still don't know a bloody thing about women, do you?" Peggy interrupted with a laugh. "If she knows you—if she loves you—then she knows exactly what she's getting herself into. Don't underestimate her just because you underestimate yourself."

Steve didn't respond, but instead thought about Peggy's words for a moment.

"The way I see it, you have two choices," she said after a few minutes. "You can either stay here with me and live the rest of your life in the past, or you can finally let yourself move on and chart a new future without me."

"I don't want a future without you," he said as the tears that had been threatening to fall for the past few minutes finally gave way.

"We don't really get a say in the matter, now do we?"

Peggy had started to get tired, so Steve had called for the staff to put her back to bed. Now as he wove his motorcycle through the crowded streets of D.C., he thought about what she'd said. Maybe she'd been right. Maybe it was time to let go of the past and focus on the future. For the past two years, he'd spent all of his time trying to understand the strange new world he'd been thrust into, but he hadn't really taken the time to live in it. Perhaps it was time he did.

He parked his bike at the curb and looked up at the windows of the building in front of him. The light was on, so he took that as a sign that he was making the right choice.

Knocking on the door, he waited.

"Hey, Steve," YN said with a look of confusion on her face as she opened the door.

He wanted to turn around and walk back down the steps, but he forced himself to stay where he was. He knew that fear played a part in his desire to retreat, but he'd yet to give into that particular emotion, and he'd be damned if he started today.

"I know this is last minute, but I thought you might like to get some dinner with me."

The light in her eyes began to brighten as a smile spread across her face. "I'd love to."

Steve waited while she grabbed a jacket and as they made their way down the stairs, he tentatively reached out and slipped her hand into his. When she intertwined their fingers, he felt the pieces of his life start to click into place. For the first time since he'd come out of the ice, he didn't feel like he was on the outside looking in—he felt like he'd finally come home.

_______________

They all sat around the conference room table in the Compound in upstate New York, but none of them were really saying anything. It had been a long flight home from Wakanda and YN knew she was still in shock, so she could only assume those that had survived were suffering the same.

She felt lost—like a piece of her was missing. When she stopped to think about it, she realized that it wasn't just one piece that was gone—half of her soul felt like it had been ripped out and the other half had no idea how to keep going.

Watching Vision die had been horrible. YN had never seen anything like it in her life. She'd always heard the old saying about the color draining out of someone's face when they were sick or scared, but she'd just assumed it was just that—a saying. But with Vision, the color had literally drained from his body once Thanos had removed the Mind Stone. He'd gone from the beautiful magenta and gold to a lifeless gray in a matter of seconds. It reminded her of the old black and white television shows she and Steve watched late at night when neither of them could sleep.

None of them had been given time to process Vision's death before Thanos had enacted his plan, though. The trauma of losing their friend was still fresh and raw when they'd had to helplessly watch their other friends turn to dust before their eyes.

Bucky had been the first, and it had broken her heart to hear him call out to Steve. They'd only just gotten him back and now Steve had to lose his best friend yet again.

T'Challa had literally slipped through Okoye's fingers and YN had been shocked to see the stoic general so shaken after the experience.

The look on Wanda's face had been so serene, it was almost as though she welcomed whatever fate that would take her away from the pain of losing her love.

The tree creature, Groot, had spoken his last words in his own language, but Rocket was too torn up to translate for them. Judging from the broken look on the genetically modified raccoon's face, Groot's last words had ripped a hole in his heart.

No one had seen Sam after Thanos had disappeared, so they'd all been left to assume that he'd been a victim of the Decimation as well.

The Decimation.

It was the term coined by the news outlets, and while it was such a harsh word, it seemed fitting for what they'd all just witnessed. Half of the world's population and resources had instantly disappeared, but YN couldn't help but think that it also referred to the ones of them that had been left behind. There wasn't a single person on the face of the world—in all of the universe—that hadn't been affected by what Thanos had done. They were all walking around like zombies with no clear direction on where to go, or what to do next.

YN's mind had shifted to thoughts of Tony. They'd still had no word from him, and she'd begun to fear the worst. She knew she had to keep hoping that he'd managed to survive, but the odds weren't in his favor.

Steve let out a long breath and silently rose from the table. Everyone glanced up and watched him leave, but none of them had the energy to ask him where he was going.

YN stayed where she was for a few breaths, but she knew she couldn't stay idle for too much longer. Steve was hurting just like the rest of them, and probably more so since he insisted on carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was the leader of their team—their family—so he felt personally responsible for being unable to stop Thanos.

He wasn't alone in that sentiment, though. YN knew without a doubt that each and every person sitting around the conference room table was blaming themselves in some way for how it had all turned out. Second guessing their actions wasn't going to help them, but it was impossible to keep their doubts at bay.

Steeling her resolve, she pushed back from the table and followed Steve out of the room. She felt the eyes of her friends on her back, but no one made a move to stop her. They knew that if anyone could get through to Steve, it would be her. She just hoped she had the strength within her to do what needed to be done.

She found him sitting at his desk in his office with a small gold key in his hand. Steve was such a public figure, it was hard for him to have anything for himself, but he'd managed to keep some things locked away—even from her. She knew the bottom drawer on the right was always locked, but she'd never once asked him what secrets he kept hidden even from her.

He looked up and saw her standing in the doorway.

"Do you want to be alone?" she asked, hoping he wouldn't say yes.

Shaking his head, he held out a hand toward her. She immediately went in and sat on the corner of his desk and took his hand.

"What are we going to do now?" he asked in a small, unsure voice.

She'd never heard him sound so sad and forlorn in all the years she'd known him, and it broke her heart even more than it already was. "I don't know, but whatever we do, we'll do it together."

He nodded and turned away from her. Slipping the key into the lock, he twisted it and pulled the drawer open. "You've never asked me what I keep in this drawer."

"No, I haven't."

His brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"If you'd wanted me to know, you would've told me."

"It doesn't bother you?"

She let out a sigh as she tried to find the right words to explain her feelings on the matter. "We all have secrets, Steve. People assume that all secrets are bad, but they're not. I trust that whatever you have in that drawer isn't something that would hurt me."

"I don't know about that."

Worry started to settle deep within her gut at his words. She'd always assumed that they'd shared the important part of their lives with one another, but what if she'd been wrong about him?

He reached into the drawer and pulled out a old, scarred wooden box and laid it on the desk before him. Lifting the lid, he began to pull out the contents. Faded pictures took up most of the space and YN realized that these were all from his life before he'd become Captain America. Buried at the bottom of the box were two metal objects. One she recognized as a compass and the other was a metal replica of the wing that adorned the sides of his cowl.

He pulled out the metal wing first. "This was one of Buck's. All the Howlies had them pinned to their uniforms during the war."

"I never realized that was the Howling Commando's insignia," she said as she took the tarnished wing from him and turned it over in her hands. She looked over at the compass. "What about that?"

He picked up the compass and ran a finger along its curved edge. "I used this during the war. S.H.I.E.L.D. had kept it—along with all the rest of this—locked up in D.C. Fury dug it all out after I came out of the ice and returned it to me."

He held out the compass and she took it from him. She wasn't sure why this old memento was so important to him. And then she opened it. A sad smile spread across her face when she saw the newspaper photo he clipped out and pasted inside.

"You still miss her, don't you?"

"It doesn't mean that I don't love you, YN."

She reached out and cupped his face in her hand. "I know that, Steve. But I also know how much Peggy meant to you—how much she still means to you. I'll never replace her, and I'm okay with that."

He looked up at her through tear-filled eyes. "How did I ever get so lucky to find such two amazing women in my life?"

"You haven't exactly had the easiest of lives, Steve. Maybe this is God's way of making up for all the shit he's put you through for the past century."

He chuckled softly and shook his head. "You're probably right. But you're always right, so that's nothing new."

"You've lost so much in your life," she said as she nodded toward the box of memories lying open on his desk. "But I refuse to believe this is the end."

He gave her a disbelieving look as he sighed.

Her mouth formed a hard line as her eyes glared into his. "What would Peggy be telling you right now if she were here?"

Letting out a frustrated breath, he began muttering. "Not to give up."

"She was a wise woman, and you'd do well to heed her words." She gave him a little half smile as she gently kicked his leg. "She might just come back to haunt you if you don't."

Her words brought a smile to his face. "I wish you two had met—she'd have loved you."

"What makes you think we didn't?"

Steve's eyes grew large. "What? When?"

"You weren't the only one she summoned to her bedside before she died."

"You never told me. . ."

"Like I said earlier, sometimes keeping secrets isn't a bad thing." She saw that he wasn't going to let the matter drop, so she explained further. "Peggy wanted to meet me—size me up, if you will. She made me promise that I'd always take care of you. She also didn't want you to know that we were gossiping about you behind your back."

"That sounds just like her."

"She was a great woman," YN said wistfully. "I wish I had gotten a chance to know her better." She stopped and waited for Steve's eyes to meet hers again. "But she's right. We need to take care of each other—more so now than ever. There's a room full of broken people down the hall that need someone to take charge and make the tough choices. I know you don't want to. I know you're hurting just like the rest of us, but we need you, Steve. Not Captain America—we need Steve Rogers."

Steve nodded and began putting the items back in the box. He placed the box back in the drawer and closed it before rising and holding hand out to her.

"You're not going to lock it?"

He shook his head. "The time for secrets has passed."

She took his hand and nodded as he led her from the room. There may not be anymore secrets between them, but there were still things in this world they didn't know or understand—but they would. They'd eventually find out every secret Thanos had locked away and they would use that information to bring him down once and for all. If they were lucky, they'd be able to fix what he'd broken, but if not, they'd be damn sure to stop him from ever doing it again.

___________________

As YN stood on the shore of the Hudson and looked up at the cloudless blue sky above her, she saw a flock of birds pass overhead and she smiled. But then she turned and saw the ruined remains of the Compound—they place they'd called home for so many years. They'd lost so much in the past few weeks, but it paled in comparison to what they'd gained. It was bittersweet to know that they'd been able to reunite so many people across the universe, but they'd had to sacrifice two of their own to do it.

YN didn't begrudge Nat and Tony for their sacrifices. She knew that if she'd been in their shoes, she would've done the exact same thing. That's what made them heroes—it was what put them a step above the rest of humanity. It wasn't that they thought they were better than everyone else, it was more that heroes felt an all-consuming need to put others before themselves. Nat and Tony had weighed their options and both of them had decided that ensuring the universe was a better place for everyone else meant more than their own personal survival.

Knowing how the minds of heroes worked, and coming to terms with the overwhelming loss, were two different things, though. YN could respect the choices that had been made, but it didn't make the pain in her heart any easier to bear. If anything, it made her feel even more guilty when she met Steve's eyes across a room. They'd been some of the lucky ones. Not only did they still have one another, but they'd also regained some of their closest friends.

Thinking of her friends, she searched the blackened rubble for any sign of them. The cleaning crews had already started hauling off most of the debris, and with each truckload that rumbled down the drive, new layers of memories were being uncovered. YN's emotions were still too raw for her to spend much time sifting through what was left of their home, so she often wandered off to the river to try to find a semblance of peace. It wasn't really working, but at least it gave her a few moments to herself to cry alone.

She finally spotted Steve crouched down in a pile of concrete and with a sigh, she began making her way back to him. He was taking Tony's death harder than he should, and YN had no clue what to say or do to help him assuage his own guilt.

"Find anything?" she asked as she crouched down beside him and began moving small bits of concrete to reveal what lay beneath.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he held out the old compass for her to see. "I thought it was gone forever."

She took it from him and carefully opened it. Amazingly enough, Peggy's picture inside was mostly undamaged. "I'm glad you found this."

"I saw her, you know."

YN's gaze flew from the compass in her hands to his guilt-ridden eyes. "What do you mean?"

"We haven't really had a chance to talk about what happened," he began. "After we realized we lost Nat, none of us felt like sharing our own personal adventures in the past."

"Yeah, I didn't really get an adventure," YN said with a frown. "All I saw was some idiot singing and dancing to Come and Get Your Love on a deserted planet. Rhodey was convinced we were going to get some Raiders of the Lost Ark-type booby traps when we went to retrieve the stone, but even that turned out to be a bust."

"I wish ours had been that boring," Steve said with a wry grin. "It all went to hell, and Tony and I had to improvise."

YN's interest was piqued. "How so?"

"Loki got away with the Tesseract after New York."

"Hold up a second," YN said as her eyes grew large. "Please tell me there's not an alternate reality where Loki is out there running amok?"

Steve shrugged. "At least it's not our reality."

YN shook her head. "Okay, so if you guys didn't get the Tesseract in 2012, when did you get it?"

"1970."

"You did another time jump? How? We didn't have enough Pym Particles for you two to do another time jump."

"That's why we went to 1970," Steve explained. "Howard and Hank were both working with S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time, so Tony got the Tesseract while I stole some more Pym Particles to get us back home."

At once everything started clicking into place for her. 

1970\. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Peggy.

"I didn't seek her out," Steve explained when YN didn't say anything for a few moments. "I just randomly ended up in her office."

"Did you talk to her?" YN asked around the lump in her throat.

Steve shook his head. "No, I couldn't—the timeline and all that."

"But you wanted to?"

He reached out and took the compass from her. "I did want to talk to her again, but I also wanted to find Tony and get back home—to you."

"She was your first love," YN said as she laid a hand on his cheek. "I know there's a part of you that will always love her."

"I'm not the same man anymore," he told her as he stared into her eyes. "I can look back and imagine what a life with her would be like, but that's all it is—a figment of my imagination. I know what my life with you is like, and I wouldn't trade that for the world."

YN tried to keep the tears at bay, but she'd been riding an emotional rollercoaster for weeks, and every time she thought it was finally coming to an end, she'd round a turn and find another loop waiting for her. She felt the tear slowly sliding down her cheek and she couldn't help the sad smile that spread across her face when he caught it with his thumb. This is what she loved about Steve. She knew that no matter what happened, he'd always be there for her, no matter what.

"I love you."

He leaned in and softly kissed her. "I love you, too."

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them too overcome with emotion to say anything more. 

The moment finally passed and YN felt a sense of peace she hadn't known was possible since their entire world had literally come crashing down around them. "So, what now?"

Steve looked at the compass in his hand. "I'm thinking that maybe it's time this joined the rest of my past in the museum."

"Steve. . ."

He shook his head to keep her from continuing her thought. "We have a second chance at life. It's time I stopped living in the past and starting looking to the future." He paused and looked deep into her eyes. "And I want to do that with you."

**~ The End ~**

______________

_Author's Note: Thank you for reading this Miniseries from my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! This was harder to write than I'd originally thought it was going to be! Endgame is still heavy on my heart which is why this is taking it's toll on me. There are some who might like this version of events rather than the canon version, but either way, I'm happy with the conclusion of this Miniseries. How about you all? What did you think? I look forward to your comments and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!_


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